Tornado Tears is the TAB favourite at $2.20 to win Thursday night’s Group 2 McKenna Memorial (595m) at Sandown Park.
The best stayer in the land, Tornado Tears dropped in distance to score an impressive come-from-behind win in his McKenna Memorial heat last Thursday night. And while he showed plenty of nous, his winning time of 34.12sec was only the third quickest among the four heats – some three lengths inferior to the fastest winner, Neo Cleo (33.95sec).
Greyhound Racing Victoria’s expert form analyst, The Watchdog, expects Tornado Tears’ class to prevail in the $40,000 to-the-winner final.
“Tornado Tears has the potential to be the greatest stayer we have seen,” The Watchdog said.
The son of Fernando Bale demonstrated his enormous potential when recording consecutive track record runs over 710m at Brisbane’s Albion Park in June.
While The Watchdog has tipped the Robert Britton-trained Tornado Tears to win, he acknowledged that being drawn in box four meant he would need “an ounce of luck” in the early stages.
Interestingly, the last time Tornado Tears raced at odds of greater than $2.00 was seven starts ago, when he won a race over the 595m distance at Sandown on 24 April, paying $2.50.
Incidentally, The Watchdog was in hot form at Sandown Park last Thursday night, selecting six out of 12 winners including a couple of greyhounds who were tremendous value.
He correctly tipped Van Ann (Race 6), who paid $7.70 after being marked a $3.30 chance by The Watchdog, and Slingshot Hammer (Race 9), who paid $6.30 having been rated a $2.80 chance by The Watchdog.
